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Damp Proofing

Sudden appearance of damp above skirting board and below picture rail

Anonymous user 03/03/2024 - 3.34 PM

Hello, we have a house which has been rented out for a couple of years. We recently got it back and on one of the first floor bedroom walls there was a lot of mould. We washed this off and discovered that the airbrick was masticked up. We opened this up and ventilated the room and there was no reoccurence. We then had the room repainted and it all looked lovely for 2-3 weeks. We've had some extremely heavy rain lately but then we noticed that above the skirting and below the picture rail on one outside wall, it "looked wet", as if the paint had been cutted in with the wrong colour. From the outside there is nothing to see, it is on the side of the house and is rendered. We are a bit stumped as to what the problem might be. Help!!

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2 Answers

Anonymous user

Hi, have you tried looking at guttering above the affected areas, generally damp on the 1st floor is from external problem. 1:Check gutters if filled clean them out 2:check tiles on roof are not raised or broken

Answered17 November 2020

Damp Investigations

Rating: 5 out of 5

Southall

This condition is very common in properties that haven’t been properly ventilated. The condition is called hygroscopic dampness. And it will be worse when it’s rained or is raining. It’s not from the exterior though ; what has happened is that thick plaster ( not render) has been used to straighten the wall or patch it . Plaster is hygroscopic and will absorb moisture from humidity . Though these patches have not appeared before they are now saturated and will not dry out . You can spray them with Stain Block but the best thing is to remove the thick plaster ( more than 2.0mm) and fill with render .

Answered17 December 2020